CSC107 - Lab 8
Population

Assigned March 26th
Due March 29th 5 pm

Show your work on all questions for full credit.

References

Rabbits Starter Code

Rabbits and Carrots

Question 1

There are many parameters for the population model that can have an effect on our resulting dynamics. These are

Initial Population of Rabbits
Initial Population of Carrots
Energy from eating carrot
Energy needed to hatch new Rabbit
Degree of wiggling
Percent of carrots that hatch each time

By creating sliders for all of these parameters, we can more directly change these values without having to go back to the blocks code, and can actually change them while the model is running. Make the above parameters into sliders having reasonable minimum and maximum values, and find a set of parameters that keeps the rabbits alive as long as possible.

Question 2

The carrot reproduction is a little unrealistic. Alter this as follows

In setup, carrots are randomly assigned a germination time between 4 and 20.
Carrots are also assigned a lifetime, which is initially equal to 0
Each time through the forever loop, a carrot adds 1 to its lifetime
When a carrot's lifetime equals its germination, it hatches, and resets its own lifetime and that of it's child back to 0.

What effect does this have on the overall selection of parameters you used in Question 1?

Question 3

Use the algorithm from the Bears and Flowers model to have the rabbits actively smell carrots instead of always wiggling. That is

Turn 45 degrees to the left
Go forward 5 spaces
Sniff for carrots and remember
Go back 5 spaces
Turn 90 degrees right
Go forward 5 spaces
Sniff for carrots and remember
Go back 5 spaces
Turn 45 degrees left
Change direction toward whichever direction had more flowers